I don’t have much insight on these things but crafters love the Cricut and I guess it can work with vinyl. Does any have experience using one of these for kart stickers?
I had a Cricut when I first started doing helmets and it actually served it’s purpose well, cutting vinyl stencils for helmets.
What are you planning to make specifically? They’re small so you won’t be able to make anything huge. And it’ll all just be single color cut vinyl.
So mine was done entirely on a cricut. Very tedious. Kart Vinyl - #72 by Bert_Nash
There’s two possible processes with a cricut:
- Traditional: Print-cut-apply.
Need:
Printable sticker vinyl (not waterproof)
Clear waterproof vinyl to seal the design
Recommended:
A quality inkjet printer (the bigger the better, max 12"x24")
The biggest Cricut mat 12"x24"
You’ll need to design your graphic, break it into parts that can be cut, print then cut, seal it with the clear vinyl, and apply it to your kart. It’s worth noting that if you have a printer capable of printing a graphic that large, it’s probably easier to print a border and cut it out with some scissors. The cricut is overkill for cutting out a relatively simple shape.
- Cut a design out of permeant water proof vinyl (this is what I did)
Need:
Permanent waterproof vinyl
Make a design, cut it out, put it on the kart.
My two recommendations would be a super simple design like the stripes above, or a design that doesn’t really follow the lines of the kart like my “testing camo” livery. You’re basically putting stickers on the kart, and scaling them properly is really hard. I just ignored the shape of the kart and went to town with a bunch of weird shapes.
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Glad you remembered that thread! Good info there and definitely a cooler cricut-done graphic layout!!
I thought about buying one on Prime day but ultimately probably won’t. (don’t worry Amazon I bought plenty of other things). I work with people that make t-shirts with the cricut too and thought that might be fun.
It sounds like it might be more work than its worth for kart graphics.
Yeah, the cricut has a very niche audience, mainly crafts that fit in its 12"x24" box. My wife does stickers of her illustrations and it works great for that. It’s great for t-shirts/stencils/etc.
However, if you’ve ever used any kind of CNC, 3d printer, or CAD software you’ll bang your head against the wall with the Cricut software.
lol, I can agree with that. You gotta remember the target audience is “crafty moms” not mechanical engineers or machinists.
Similar concept with smaller stripes… My numbers are done a Cricut machine with Oracal 651 vinyl, and just use pinstriping tape for the stripes. Though they always fly off after about 3 laps. The numbers on the other hand will stay on thru a nuclear explosion LOL!
Good looking rides Derek!
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Thanks! I use the 651 too! That’s good stuff!
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I just made new numbers for my kart using the cricut.